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An invitation to participate in the Educating Character Initiative (ECI) survey

Sept. 12, 2025

Good morning, colleagues,

I hope you're having a meaningful start to your semester. I wanted to share some exciting news and invite you into an important conversation that's unfolding across our campus.

As some of you may recall, Roanoke College was selected to receive a capacity-building grant from the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest University. This grant supports what I believe is some of the most important work we can do together, exploring how we help students flourish as whole human beings. You can find the full grant proposal here, but in the meantime let me share what this means for our community.

This work sits right at the heart of Imperative 3 in our strategic plan: to make the exploration of purpose, the pursuit of character, and the graduation of leaders a defining feature of what it means to get an education at Roanoke College. Starting Monday, you'll receive a survey as part of this grant project. I hope you'll take a few minutes to participate. We're asking our campus community to reflect on the role Roanoke College plays in students' character formation. When our task force talks about character and virtue, we're thinking broadly about those positive qualities that become part of who we are; traits like kindness, curiosity, integrity, and courage that shape how students show up in the world.

The data we gather will help inform the conversations we'll be having throughout the year about what it means to educate for character at Roanoke College. These are not abstract discussions, they are about the students sitting in your classrooms, living in our residence halls, and preparing to graduate and make a difference in their communities.

I encourage you to participate and lend your voice to this important work. After all, you are the ones who see our students grow and change every day. Your perspective matters deeply.

Thank you for saying yes to this place and to the students we serve together.

With gratitude,

Frank Shushok, Jr.